Korea`s `Thirst` receives juror`s award in Cannes

Korean director Park Chan-wook won the jury prize at the Cannes film festival Sunday for his thriller "Thirst (Bakjwi)" about a priest-turned vampire struggling with his desire for blood and sex, the event`s Web site said, according to Yonhap News.



Park shared the prize with British director Andrea Arnold, who was honored for "Fish Tank" depicting the troubled life of a teenage girl in a London suburb.



The festival`s top prize went to Austrian director Michael Haneke`s "The White Ribbon," a tragic tale of a small German town on the eve of World War I.



The award marks the first time a South Korean film has claimed the honor. The jurors praised the blood-soaked vampire film as a "unique noir film."



Park won the festival`s Grand Jury Prize in 2004 with his film "Oldboy."



"The joy of creating is my energy in making films. Filmmaking is a joy from the beginning to the end," Park told the audience at the awards ceremony. "I`d like to share this honor with actor Song Gang-ho, a great friend and colleague."



The award marks the eighth time that a local film has received one of the main awards at the Cannes International Film Festival.



Korean director Lim Known-taek received the director`s award for "Stroke of Fire" in 2002 and actress Jeon Do-yeon took the best actress prize in 2007 for "Secret Sunshine."



"Thirst" competed for top honors at this year`s Cannes with 19 other world-renowned directors, including Quentin Tarantino, Pedro Almodovar, Xavier Giannoli and Ang Lee.



Park, who had also won the Alfred Bauer Prize for his science fiction comedy "I`m a Cyborg, But That`s Ok" at the Berlin film festival, says it took a decade of preparation to bring the vampire story, a genre rarely explored by South Korean directors, to local screens.



Befitting Park`s reputation for dealing head on with the most uncomfortable subjects -- incest, revenge, insanity and brutality

-- "Thirst" again covers dark, brutal territory, drawing both criticism and praise from fans.



The film features a Catholic priest who begins to question moral and religious boundaries when he is turned into a vampire after being given a strange blood transfusion. Actor Song Gang-ho teamed up with Park for the third time after the two pulled off a superb performance in "Joint Security Area" in 2000.



Although long held in high esteem and recognized internationally, Park`s fame has not always brought him automatic success.



"I`m a Cyborg, but That`s Ok," his most recent release in 2006, was slammed by critics as "too cute to be a creation of Park`s" and was somewhat of an embarrassment for the director, failing miserably in local box offices despite its win in Berlin.



"I couldn`t bring myself to make a film for a long time due to the recent failures," Park admitted during his speech in Cannes Monday.



"Thirst," the first Korean film to be co-produced and distributed by major Hollywood studio Universal Pictures, has been sold to more than 10 countries, including France, Greece and Brazil, for screening worldwide later this year.



Hitting the local screens on April 30, the film has drawn 2.1 million viewers at home where 1 million is considered a yardstick for a box office success.